Baseball Headline

Friday June 1, 2012Road to Omaha: Gators Out to Recapture Momentum as NCAA Tournament Opens

Those two words take
on new meaning for the Gators starting Friday night. The time has come.
Showtime.

The NCAA Tournament
is finally here. The Gators have waited on this moment since they stood around in
dejection and watched South Carolina celebrate a second consecutive national
title on a warm night last June in Omaha.

They were so close
to claiming the program's first national championship but came up empty against
the Gamecocks.

The long road back
to TD Ameritrade Park began in February when the regular season started. But
for these Gators, a team ranked No. 1 in every major poll for much of the
season, the regular season appeared at times nothing more than an appetizer.

Every pitch, every
at-bat, every ground ball that was bobbled faced a fraction more scrutiny than
in past years.

To get here, they
had to play the season of course, and they did, winning a school-record 18
consecutive games during one stretch. They also tripped over a base here and
there.

A 19-16 finish
followed a 23-2 start. The last time Florida swept a series was in mid-March at
Vanderbilt – nine SEC series ago.

Still, the Gators earned
respect from the NCAA Selection Committee for their response to those great
expectations. They didn't win the SEC regular-season title. They didn't win the
SEC Tournament.

That meant little to
the selection committee. The Gators open June Lunacy – I know, doesn't
quite have the ring of March Madness – as the tournament's No. 1 overall
seed.

“It’s an honor when
you see it in the paper or Internet or whatever, and then you just try to
forget it,’’ junior pitcher Hudson Randall said. “That No. 1 doesn’t really
mean anything anymore.”

Randall is right,
but there are definitely some residual benefits.

As long as they keep
winning, the Gators won't have to leave the comforts of McKethan Stadium until
boarding a flight for Omaha. That quest starts Friday night when the Gators
face Bethune-Cookman in the Gainesville Regional.

They held their
final practice Thursday, focused on finishing off a journey that really started
the moment South Carolina's Jackie Bradley Jr. squeezed Ben McMahan's fly ball
for the final out at last year's College World Series.

“We’ve been through
this situation before,'' said skipper Kevin O'Sullivan, seeking a third trip to
Omaha in his five seasons. "Hopefully our past experience will help us
this weekend. It’s a great field. It’s not going to be easy, but we’re
certainly looking forward to the challenge.”

The Gators are a
favorite to win it all for the same reasons they were at the start of the
season.

"Pitching and
defense. I feel it always has been,'' shortstop Nolan Fontana said when asked
what he thought the strength of this team is. "Our coaching staff always
focuses on that.”

The Gators can hit,
too, with Fontana, Mike Zunino and Preston Tucker in the lineup.

But what puts fear
in Florida's opponents is the way O'Sullivan can roll out a starting rotation
that features Randall, Brian Johnson, Jonathon Crawford and Karsten Whitson.
And then make calls to the bullpen for arms like Daniel Gibson, Greg Larson,
Steven Rodriguez and Austin Maddox.

There's not another
coach in the country that has that deep an arsenal.

The Gators survived
the grind of the regular season intact. Other than for the loss of center
fielder Tyler Thompson – he suffered a season-ending knee injury in March
– they are healthy and intact.

The postseason
always offers twists and turns that no one sees coming. Remember light-hitting
third baseman Cody Dent's contributions last year?

To reach their
ultimate goal, the Gators will need more Dents. Maybe freshman second baseman
Casey Turgeon will shine. Maybe Tucker, known more for his bat than glove, will
make a leaping catch to rob someone of a home run.

"It's a great
time of year,'' Fontana said. "It's really, really fun."

O'Sullivan knows his
role.

"It’s their
team. At this point players have to play,'' he said. "You like to think as
a coach that you have a lot to do with the outcomes of the games, but at this
point in the season you don’t. The players have to go play.

"It’s pretty much
as simple as that.”

A little after 7 on
Friday night, Crawford will make his postseason debut in a start against
Bethune-Cookman. He'll toe the rubber, look in at Zunino for the sign, and fire
away.

The Road to Omaha
will officially begin. O'Sullivan will watch from his normal perch along the
dugout rail.

He'll be looking for
the one thing that makes or breaks a team in the postseason. The Gators had it
last year. They had it earlier this season. Can they grab it again?

That is the most
important question on the Road to Omaha.

"Momentum is
the biggest thing in postseason,'' O'Sullivan said. "Once you get momentum
you gotta hold onto it.”